1. Field of the Invention
An aspect of the present invention relates to a power supply of an electronic device, and more particularly, to a hybrid voltage supply apparatus in which an auxiliary power supply is combined with a main power supply, which is capable of operating a fuel cell adopted as the main power supply at a desired level, a method for controlling the hybrid voltage supply apparatus, and an electronic system employing the hybrid voltage supply apparatus as a power supply.
2. Description of the Related Art
A fuel cell is an electrochemical device for converting chemical energy of hydrogen and oxygen contained in hydrocarbon materials, such as methanol, ethanol, and natural gas, into electric energy. The fuel cell has attracted a lot of attention and development, since its energy conversion process is very efficient and friendly to the environment.
However, the fuel cell has a higher internal impedance than conventional chemical batteries, so its output voltage decreases as its output current increases. Also, since the fuel cell has a very slow response speed, the fuel cell cannot properly respond to a sharp change in a load current. In order to increase the efficiency of the fuel cell, it must be controlled to operate at an optimal operating point, at which a maximum output power is obtained. This requires the output voltage to be kept above the lowest voltage corresponding to the maximum output power.
A hybrid voltage supply apparatus includes a fuel cell as a main power supply, connected in parallel with a battery as an auxiliary power supply, and can share the load when the output voltage of the fuel cell is similar to the output voltage of the battery. However, since the output voltage of the fuel cell depends on the number of unit cells included in the fuel cell and the required power changes according to the status of a load, it is difficult to quickly balance the output voltage of the fuel cell with the output voltage of the battery.